97th St.’s Eric “President” McCarty a.k.a. “Peanut” with the ball takin’ it to the saucepan about to offer a tasty butter roll to 92nd St.. Photo: Bobbito Garcia
On Sunday, July 13th, our 97th St. squad took out 92nd St. in a best two out of three series in the Joe Pasta Classic at the PS 84 schoolyard on 92nd St. in Manhattan. The day before we baked 94th St. by 30+. We had never lost a game in the annual weekend tournament’s young history, so in the opener for the chip we were definitely shocked to come up with a L. Thing was, 92nd played their hearts out, and still only beat us by three, so we felt we just needed to get off our high horse and play hard up to our level. We came back and won the next two pretty convincingly.
Kirk Rodriguez was the series MVP as he averaged 25+ throughout. I contributed 15 in the deciding game mostly from three point range. Honestly, had we lost, I would’ve been totally cool as the tournament director Joe “Pasta” Cifone was on the opposite squad. We go waaaaaaaaaay back and that’s my homeboy for real. The first time I played at PS 84 was 1981 in the Goddard Riverside Tournament. Our squad was led by lefty Richie Simmons, who a couple of years later wound up leading the NYC Catholic HS Division in scoring for All Hallows. Pasta was in the park back then, and he’s still there now. Talk about staying true to your roots! I support what he does to the fullest, especially since the Upper West Side was once a hotbed for unlimited tournaments (Goat, Ray Diaz, Big Vic’s, Amsterdam Action, Holcombe Rucker Memorial in Riverside Park, Dome Project, and the aforementioned Goddard Riverside), yet now the PC is the only one left.
The Upper West Side of Manhattan produced NBA pros Mario Elie and Reggie Carter as well as park legends like Earl “the Goat” Manigault, Tommy Ryer, and former Dyckman MVP Eric Opio. Former EBC rebounding champ Tone “the Batman” Greer was raised on 97th St. too, and has been responsible for leading our squad. Shout out to former HS All-American Craig Batchelor who looked good after a recent knee injury, Gary Clark, Kadi Amin, Gary Gnu, “Thirsty,” Chris Michelle, E, Rod, and every single person in that park that was booing us! No one wanted us to win! It was actually nice to feel what it’s like to be a visitor in a hostile home court advantaged environment. Sorry we had to take it, yo–again!
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July 23rd, 2008 at 12:07 pm
Supe says:
Bobb … what’s truly amazing is that 97th Street core squad has been playing together since the mid ’80s (Kirk, Greer, Prez, Batch, Gnu, etc.) and are still playing together … that has to be some sort of streetball record … I remember those a.m. battles at the Goat when nobody wanted to lose and get off the court … big shouts to Joe Cifone …
Supe
July 23rd, 2008 at 12:55 pm
Bobbito Garcia a.k.a. Kool Bob Love says:
you’re right, supe. kirk, tone, batch, dom, eric, and gnu probably won more ray diaz chips than any team in the ’90s, and that was at a point when that league was getting really really decent. i remember mario elie played one game, set the scoring record with 53, then a year later some 5′3″ kid named Rock broke it with 55. i miss those Ray Diaz Tournament days. you see they re-did the park on 101st?
July 23rd, 2008 at 2:13 pm
PASTA says:
THANKS SUPE ON THE SHOUT OUTS, I REMEMBER WHEN YOU USE
TO DO YOUR THING, NEXT YEAR MAKE SURE YOU STOP BY SUPE
SO EVERYONE CAN SEE YOU, GOOD LOOKING SUPE AND HOPE TO SEE
YOU SOON, PASTA
July 24th, 2008 at 11:21 am
Derrick Canada says:
Thanks for the memories. Tell the 97th St crew that DC said what’s up. I used to play and against with all those guys when I first started playing in the city.
July 24th, 2008 at 6:36 pm
Bobbito Garcia a.k.a. Kool Bob Love says:
DC-no doubt, i’ll let tone adn them know, but they’ll probably wince when they hear your name! haha! i can remember you flushing it a couple of times on their whole squad! hahaha